Creative Challenge: Ireland Gets a Head

Photograph by David Benbennick, via Creative Commons

Compared with a headline, a sonnet is a piece of cake.

That’s what I said last week, pointing to the difficulty of constructing an old-fashioned newspaper headline that fits to exact measure and that, in no more space than a haiku, exactly reflects the information, emphases, and tone of the story it heads.

I took as evidence a 1950s wire-service story used as an example of headline writing by Bruce Westley of the University of Wisconsin at Madison in his 1953 classic textbook, News Editing. Here is the story:

WASHINGTON, May 2—Ireland, growing prosperous, had its Marshall Plan aid suspended today.

The economic cooperation administration announced the end of the program with the agreement of the Irish government.

“As a result of Ireland’s progress under the Marshall Plan,” the ECA said, “the Irish economy is probably in better shape today than in any other time in history.”

In the last three years the United States has given Ireland $18,000,000 in Marshall Plan funds and lent it $128,500,000.

The ECA reported that industrial production in Ireland has risen 32 percent since 1947.

Westley wanted two lines counting between 17 and 18 (where narrow letters count ½ and wide ones 1½ or 2. It’s complicated). This was the first attempt, way too long (counting 23 and 27½):

Ireland, Prosperous, Has Marshall Plan Aid Suspended

Second try:

Marshall Plan Aid to Ireland Suspended

That’s better, he says, because “Marshall Plan Aid” fits nicely with a count of 17. But the second line of the second try is still too long, with a count of 19. So for the third try he has a shorter second line, with a count of 17:

Marshall Plan Aid to Eire Suspended

And for the fourth, a second line that counts 16:

Marshall Plan Aid to Ireland Cut Off

But, Westley says, does this really tell the story? “One fact that cries to be told is: Why? To say that Ireland’s Marshall Plan aid has been cut off or suspended immediately raises the question: for what reason?”

So here’s the challenge: squeeze the reason into two already full lines. And here is the masterful solution:

“The head writer in this case felt that the ‘prosperity’ angle should be told if possible. And he found a way. It entailed making the original first line become the second.”

Irish Boom Cuts Off Marshall Plan Aid

The first line counts 18½, which is ½ over the limit. But that line contains three spaces, which can be squeezed to fit.

I invited readers to try to do as well. Only seven responded to the challenge—not only is it difficult, but a really good news headline is so good that it doesn’t call attention to itself, just to the story. There’s no glory for the creator.

Understandably, therefore, the headline writer is tempted to show off. For a quirky feature story, like the Page One “A-hed” of The Wall Street Journal, a quirky head is not only possible but necessary. A straight news story, however, calls for a straight head. So with a smile, I had to reject

Eire, Rich; Marshall, Nix

and it doesn’t fit the width anyhow. Other more serious candidates didn’t quite measure up to Westley’s winner:

Ireland Progresses; Marshall Aid Stops

Two problems there. “Progresses” is too general, and the cause-and-effect is implied but not stated.

Now Flush, Ireland Sees Aid Suspended

That one is missing Marshall.

Ireland Prosperous, Suspends Marshall Plain Aid

There the second line is too long, and it looks as if Ireland did the suspending.

Of 13 proposals, only one by “yabba” rises to the level of Westley’s winner:

Prospering Ireland Loses Marshall Aid

It includes all the information in Westley’s final version and presents it in a sober,  straightforward manner, with lines counting 17 and 18 respectively. “Prospering” derives from the lead of the story too.

I still prefer the shorter words of Westley’s headline, but I do think “Prospering Ireland” deserves to be called a winner. Evidently there’s at least one headline poet at work today. I’d offer a piece of cake to “yabba,” if I had one.